Monday, December 14, 2015

Numbers

From Ex Road Driver and present employee..Skip..

NUMBERS

And what they mean to Obama care....I've had a great adventure, going from a contractor to an employee, but, I'm getting way ahead of myself...

It all started when I got older, my health insurance kept going up, and, I had to reduce my coverage and increase my deductible, to try and keep a minimal coverage...The last one had a $15,000 deductible, and covered nothing until that point, called catastrophic health...For $700 a month.....Let me break in at that point and inject a story:

My wife and I were walking through downtown Phoenix City, Alabama, one evening after hours, everything was closed. We happened upon a shoe store, and, in the window, was a pair of shoe’s in her size...She said "they sure would look good on me” so I picked up a brick, threw it through the window, and she has a new pair of shoe’s....The next store was for clothes and had a mannequin in the window with a dress her size. She said” That dress sure would look good on me”, another brick, she has a new dress.....The next store had another mannequin in it, this one with a mink coat on it....”Dang, that sure would look good on me”. At that point I turned around and looked at her and said ”WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M MADE OF.....BRICKS?’'.

So there I was, barely able to cover a policy that does not cover(Oxymoron at the highest level),and Obama care came out....Politically I'm a centrist, liberal about some things and conservative about others. So,I made the calls and qualified for a GREAT policy(with a healthy subsidy) I had not seen help like that for 30 years...The main part, My corporation sets my salary and I control those numbers, so I fell into something (with help)that I could afford...The last two years have been great....THEN,I put it down and became an employee(Of the greatest company ever),so all the rules changed...

I was informed by HR, that I needed to bail on Obama care or there may be fines for next year(Thank you Renee)and proceeded to talk to Healthcare.gov 6 times...The funny part is, I got hung up on, had folks who did not hardly speak English, explained that I could keep the policy(2 times)with no fine, and then finally got someone yesterday that understood the questions....Good things come when you ask the right questions. I'll draw a correlation to our owner Ops here in a minute, Obama care can help.

For now, let me stick with the numbers story....It, appears, I can keep that policy, but, if, there's a policy available for less than 9.5% of my income(and my income with business losses of the past, showed me back to my contractor status)I could still keep that policy.....Only problem there is, Obama care subsidies are based on GROSS income, before any deductions are made....So now, I'm in a spot, comparing the company policy, for me and my wife, with Obama care...It seems for income purposes, and her not being included in our company policy, we can still get help.....But, even with the help, it would be $700 plus for her coverage.....With the company stuff it's $600+,for slightly less coverage...Either is still way more that the 9.5% Obama care is supposed to cover....My thought are, as owner ops, even with income up to $60-70,000,taxable,there is still a subsidy available, got on the healthcare.gov site and call them...they will help.....